THIS IS MEMORIAL DEVICE

London: Faber & Faber, 2017. First edition. Paperback. A fine copy in the original wrappers with French flaps. This original paperback with French flaps has been signed by David Keenan and dated in the year of publication. The debut novel by David Keenan is a love letter to the small towns of Lanarkshire in the west of Scotland in the late 1970s and early '80s as they were temporarily transformed by post-punk, the endless possibilities that came out of the freefall and detritus of punk rock. Its authors are Ross Raymond and Johnny McLaughlin, two dedicated fanboys whose interactions with the principle players of the scene, like Chinese Moon, Steel Teeth and Glass Sarcophagus, recreated a story of myth, magic and mundanity. At its core is the story of Memorial Device (perhaps the greatest band you have never heard of), a post-punk group that could have gone all the way were it not for excess and the uncompromising bloody-minded belief that served to confirm them as underground legends. David Keenan conjures a cast of misfits, artists, drop-outs, small-town visionaries and musicians in a moment where art and the demands it made were as serious as your life. This is Scotland. This is Memorial Device. 298 pages with index.